Institution: University of Marburg (Germany)
Program: Faculty of Germanistics and Art studies
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2002
Author: Alexandra N. Lenz
Dissertation Title: Struktur und Dynamik des Substandards. Eine Studie
zum Westmitteldeutschen (Wittlich/Eifel).
Linguistic Field: Sociolinguistics, Phonology, Phonetics
Subject Language: German, Standard (code: GER)
Dissertation Director 1: Klaus J. Mattheier
Dissertation Director 2: Joachim Herrgen
Dissertation Director 3: J�rgen E. Schmidt
Dissertation Abstract:
The study is focused on an object which has only in recent decades
come within the ambit of Germanistic linguistic variation research:
the nonstandard, i.e., the entire spoken-language spectrum outside of
the normative standard. The small town region of Wittlich in the Eifel
mountains (southwestern Germany) provides the basis for the analysis,
a multivariate investigation,which takes into account the areal,
social, and situational/pragmatic dimensions of variation. Both
"objective" linguistic data and "subjective" attitudinal data were
collected, and both sets of data were subjected to qualitative and
quantitative/statistical analyses. The result is a representative
overview, which makes it possible to formulate substantiated
statements on the current linguistic situation in - beyond the
immediate region - the West Middle German area and on the processes of
change observable there. Crystallizing out as the central finding of
the study is a structure of the nonstandard described in terms of a
language-dynamically recast concept of variety. Whilst up until now
discussion of linguistic variation has been caught on the horns of the
dilemma between a discrete variety model and one of variative
continuum, this study succeeds in reconciling the approaches for the
first time. Against the background of an empirically validated
continuum, distinct varieties emerge in both speaker awareness and in
objective linguistic behavior and system-level data. This hypothesis
is supported in no little measure by an analysis of hyperforms
(hypercorrections and hyperdialectalisms), which are interepreted as
superficial reflections of underlying variety boundaries.
[Published as: LENZ, Alexandra N. (2003): Struktur und Dynamik des
Substandards. Eine Studie zum Westmitteldeutschen (Wittlich
/Eifel). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag (Zeitschrift f�r
Dialektologie und Linguistik des Deutschen. Beihefte. 125).]